These incredibly delicious Superfood Salad Bowls with crispy chicken, beets, butternut squash, rice, goat cheese, and ranch dressing are a delicious way to pack vegetables into your meal.
The inspiration behindthese Superfood Salad Bowls was Sweetgreen. People are obsessed with this chain that sells healthy salads with loads of toppings. I think that Sweetgreen is 75% awesome and 25% too much kale. The topping to greens ratio is off, so I created a Sweetgreen style salad, using some of the topping in my favorite salad – and I fixed the greens to topping ratio.
This is an ideal recipe for meal prep. It is a little too much work to make just one serving – don’t get me wrong – it is delicious and worth the time to prepare – but you might want to prep enough to make a few meals. Roasting the squash and beets, cooking the rice, and making the crispy chicken takes about an hour. I made enough for 5 servings and ate this salad for lunch or dinner for 5 days straight. I never got sick of this salad – I looked forward to eating it!
An easy way to save time would be to buy cooked beets at Trade Joes. Roasting beets takes about an hour, and peeling them can get messy. Another time saving hack is to buy diced butternut squash – it is just so hard to chop squash!
I topped this salad with my homemade ranch dressing. The dressing takes only 5 minutes to prepare and it is the best ranch I have tasted – you should definitely mix up a jar. You could definitely opt to use another dressing, ranch is always my go to, and I thought that is paired nicely with this salad.
With summer just round the corner (we hope) I like to try and get a little healthier and get into better shape. I am not really into dieting. Instead I try to incorporating more superfoods into my meals. This salad contains three of my go-to superfoods: spinach, butternut squash, and beets.
I used black rice in this recipe simply because I wanted the salads to be super colorful in photos. You can use any rice that you like. If you want to save time, you can buy a bag of Uncle Ben’s microwavable rice.
Superfood Salad Bowls
These incredibly delicious Superfood Salad Bowls with crispy chicken, beets, butternut squash, rice, goat cheese, and ranch dressing are a delicious way to pack vegetables into your meal.
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes
Servings 5 servings
Ingredients
- 3Medium Beets
- 3/4poundChopped Butternut Squash
- about 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
- Salt and Pepper
- 1 1/2cupsof Cooked Rice
- 1 1/2poundsof Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
- 2-3Eggs
- 2cupsPlain Panko or Breadcrumbs
- about 2 tablespoons of Butter
- 1/2cupCrumbled Goat Cheese
- 1poundof Baby Spinach
- Ranch Dressing
Instructions
Heat your oven to 350 degrees.
If you are roasting the beets yourself, get to work on that first. Beet juice may stain light colored countertops, cutting boards, and clothing - so I recommend wearing an apron and using a dark colored cutting board. Slice the leaves off the beets. Place each beet on a piece of aluminum foil, drizzle a little olive oil over the beets, and then wrap them up loosely in foil. This technique will steam the beets - and don't worry the outer layer of skin will peel right off the beets once they have cooked. Place the beets on a large parchment lined baking sheet. Let the beets cook for 15 minutes.
While the beets are roasting, get the rice going if you are boiling the rice.
After the beets have been in the oven for 15 minutes, take them out of the oven and spread the butternut squash out on the parchment beside the beets. Drizzle with olive oil and then dust with salt and pepper. Return to the oven for about 30 minutes, until the squash and the beets are soft. Unwrap the beets, and let them cool for 10 minutes before using your fingers to peel off the outer layer of skin. Then chop the beets.
Next, prepare the chicken. Place the panko in a shallow bowl. Crack the eggs into another shallow bowl and beat them with a fork. Heat a skillet over medium heat, and add enough butter to just coat the bottom of the pan. Dip a chicken breast in the panko, then the egg, and then back in the panko, thickly coating the chicken in the panko. Then place it in the hot skillet. Continue doing this until the skillet is full (I find that I can usually fit 3 chicken breasts at a time). After about 3 minutes the first side of the chicken will be browned. Flip and add more butter to the pan as necessary. Once the second side of the chicken has browned, place it on a baking rack on a baking sheet, and into the oven. (This makes the chicken extra crispy). Follow the same method to cook the remaining chicken breasts. Let the chicken breasts bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
To assemble the salads, start with a handful or two of spinach, add a big scoop of rice on top, then add some of the beets, butternut squash, and goat cheese. Top with a chicken breast and drizzle with ranch dressing.
Recipe Notes
An easy way to save time would be to buy cooked beets at Trade Joes. Roasting beets takes about an hour, and peeling them can get messy. Another time saving hack is to buy diced butternut squash - it is just so hard to chop squash! I topped this salad with my homemade ranch dressing. The dressing takes only 5 minutes to prepare and it is the best ranch I have tasted - you should definitely mix up a jar. You could definitely opt to use another dressing, ranch is always my go to, and I thought that is paired nicely with this salad. I used black rice in this recipe simply because I wanted the salads to be super colorful in photos. You can use any rice that you like. If you want to save time, you can buy a bag of Uncle Ben's microwavable rice.
